Computer networks generally comprise various interconnected computing devices that can communicate with each other to exchange data. When small numbers of devices are interconnected, the devices can be directly connected to each other. For example, one device can be directly connected to another device via a network link. However, direct connections between large numbers of devices is not scalable. Thus, the connections between a large number of devices will typically be via indirect connections. For example, one device can be connected to another device via an interconnection network comprising one or more routers. Large routers for connecting many devices together can be expensive. However, large routers can be constructed from lower cost commodity equipment interconnected with a high-radix architecture.
For example, a high-radix interconnection network can comprise multiple routers interconnected by a high-radix architecture. Exemplary high-radix architectures include Clos, folded-Clos, fat-tree, butterfly, flattened-butterfly, full-mesh, and dragonfly networks. The high-radix network can comprise a large number of “externally facing ports” for connecting to and between devices outside of the high-radix architecture. For example, each device connected to an externally facing port can connect to any other device on an externally facing port of the high-radix network. The high-radix network can comprise multiple different stages or tiers of routers. One or more tiers of routers can include externally facing ports and one or more tiers of routers can be connected only to devices internal to the high-radix architecture.
An operator of the high-radix network may desire to provide high availability and throughput through the high-radix network. Thus, the operator may monitor the high-radix network for indications of dropped or lost packets, service degradation, component failures, or congestion within the network. However, as the number of nodes and links of the high-radix network increases, it can be more difficult to detect and isolate degraded components within the high-radix network.